Shepherding Time Do you ever have those moments when you remember that you are indeed an animal? Like when you (or your partner) went into nesting mode, cleaning your home prior to the arrival of a newborn.
Like when you finally get a drink of water and quell the chanting thought, water, water!
Like when you can’t help but look up at the sky when you feel the shadow casted over you by a bird flying by? I love these moments where I am able to remember that even though we have wi-fi and space rockets, we are still animals. Today, I totally felt my animal self. More specifically I felt very much like how I imagine a border collie must feel. For weeks, we’ve been ramping up here at the farm. Planting. Needing more labor. Planting more. Needing more labor. Each week there is a new crew member that starts working. A new person to teach and get plugged into how we do things at the farm. Today we brought on the final member of our crew, bringing us up to 8 full time workers (not including Mike and myself), plus 1 part time. Add to that 5 families that help us with childcare each week, 1 chef who cooks a Tuesday meal, as well as 12 dirty hands share volunteers. So many hands are part of growing, harvesting, and packing your food! And me? I’m the farmer. I mean I’m the human border collie who runs around different parts of the farm, shepherding, teaching, and guiding all of this amazing help, all while also doing my own work. (This is the part where you get to imagine the border collie driving a transplanting tractor with one crew while answering questions to another crew over the radio. Or the border collie watering in the greenhouse or running inside to get harvest numbers off the computer for bok choi.) I feel stressed all day long, keeping everything moving along. Hopefully I’m not as neurotic as a collie? But it feels good. It feels whole. I finally feel like my “herd” is together. And like a good dog, I will follow my instincts and do my best to keep us all working together in harmony. Cheers!
Happy cooking, happy eating.
Farmer Cassie | 
